Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Twinwolf]

"Soooo Noriko and I got really drunk last night, which was weird because the drinks had no alcohol in them, so we kinda don't remember most of it. We were kinda coming here to see if anyone knew what was going on when we got jumped by those, who are apparently students who think we're instructors and that they have to beat us up. And then when we got here and got rid of this bunch of dudes not even worth talking about, this other guy asked us if we had 'it', which was apparently a bioweapon. Annnd that's about all I know."

[Strider03]

"Oh. Wow, that's not very much." Shef muttered.

"Anyway, info on the bioweapon, can that guy give it to us? Or are we just supposed to find some arbitrary bioweapon." This he directed at both Yuki and the receptionist behind the desk who they'd been talking to. As he asked this, Shef attempted to make a very small portal in the floor. Would it lead anywhere, a basement perhaps, or simply into solid rock?

[Empiricist]

Shef and Yuki
Through the portal you see a basement with warded storage units. You look up to find the receptionist staring dead into your eyes.
"<Please refrain from accessing areas without permission. I understand that your friend is from old Earth so I'd imagine you are too, I feel it is fair to warn you here then that what you have just done counts a trespassing and can be prosecuted as such.>"
He gives a few moments for his words to sink in before relaxing his posture.
"<The air down there's enchanted, open a connection to it and it pours out marking the exit point. Fairly standard around these parts.>"

[Strider03]

And it wouldn't count as trespassing on earth? "<Well that's a shame.>" Shef turned his attention back to Yuki.

[Twinwolf]

Yuki proceeds to explain what she'd already gathered from the man to Shef.

[Strider03]

"A supervirus, and all we know is that you took a selfie with it. Lovely." He'd been joking about Noriko probably owing him for this, but it was starting to seem like this might be a pretty big favor.

And she'd drank some augmented whiskey from a mysterious container? And that was different from the initial drinks? In the back corners of his mind, another beam was added to the edifice of Shef's resolution to not drink ever.

As Yuki finished, he, with increasing concern, asked, "You. . . you do know not to drink mysterious liquids that you don't know the contents of, right Yuki?"

[Chevaleresse]

Noriko blinked. "Huh?" She glanced around, noting the number of people staring at her. "Oh. I hadn't really noticed." Guess I'm still used to that. "Breakfast sounds good, though. I haven't eaten yet, and I've had to beat up at least four more people without doing so than I wanted to."

[Empiricist]

Noriko
True to her words Patricija doesn't take you far, not by any stretch of the imagination - the food markets are close, aggressively close to the guild, makes sense you suppose, everyone wants a piece of the adventurer's paycheck while they're still riding that high.

The market is bustling, there's so much traffic you find the gazes shifting away people more preoccupied with more substantial matters than idle gossip. Well, that and you're not entirely sure much of the people here know who the princess is anyways, adventurers and tourists, they'd be the kind to come from other places you'd imagine.

Stalls are, well, you're not quite sure what you expected but they're a bit more sci-fi than what you'd expect, with illusory displays listing items and nutritional details, and force membranes acting to the insulate food from the open air. You actually spy some of the food handlers using that forcefield appliance Fleur gave you, fields of force enveloping their hands and other appendages as they handle food before dissipating and rebooting as they switch to some other task, quick disposable gloves basically. Huh, guess it's not just for condoms after all.

The food has a definite skew towards Mediterranean with plenty of seafood dishes a befitting Kingshaven's location, the food fantastically garnished, but mostly recognizable at least in vague terms - you don't know what kinda fish is on that grill but you can at least tell it's fish. Magic plays a heavy role naturally, but after a while you get a sense for the playing field so to speak, the main features here compared to Earth have to do with temperature and cohesion, dishes sizzle with perfectly distributed heat and exist in forms that shouldn't be normally stable, things like piping hot ice cream and cold gaseous syrup, beyond that it mostly has to do with anomalous properties of the ingredients themselves.

Yet that isn't what you notice first, it's actually one of the vending machines you noticed first, offering hot cooked multicourse meals. Fancy shit, like real fancy shit, before you could've starved yourself for a week and still not have found something half as nice, but this? This is actually cheaper than the meals you used to have. At least, you think so? You don't really have a baseline for this off-realm currency, but assuming prices are similar to the US dollar or Euro, it only costs around as much as a candy bar. If you eat it soon anyways, it apparently expires in half an hour and it costs extra for each half hour boost to its longevity."Magic and sawdust." Patricija explains "Mostly sawdust."

[Twinwolf]

"A supervirus, and all we know is that you took a selfie with it. Lovely." He'd been joking about Noriko probably owing him for this, but it was starting to seem like this might be a pretty big favor.

And she'd drank some augmented whiskey from a mysterious container? And that was different from the initial drinks? In the back corners of his mind, another beam was added to the edifice of Shef's resolution to not drink ever.

As Yuki finished, he, with increasing concern, asked, "You. . . you do know not to drink mysterious liquids that you don't know the contents of, right Yuki?"

Yuki seemed almost offended at the implication. "Usually I do! Just not when I'm drunk, which I'm still not sure how that happened because I specifically asked if there was alcohol and they said no."

[Strider03]

"Hmm, so you were drugged then? Noriko wouldn't do that, right? No, pretty sure she wouldn't. So probably staff or someone impersonating staff. Though with awakened abilities anything's possible. Where, by the way? It might be a good idea to have a word with them after this whole deal is over with." Shef commented thoughtfully as they stepped away from the receptionist's desk.

"Anyway! We've got only a few leads. Noriko's phone here is one, along with the selfie you apparently took with the bioweapon. And you don't remember anything from last night?" Investigate the backdrop of the selfie--location data too if Kingshaven phones did that sort of thing--, and check whether there are any saved numbers, or call/text history in Noriko's phone. Once that info is obtained, check the browser history.

[Chevaleresse]

"Huh. Is it actually filling, or does it fill your stomach like sawdust, too?" Regardless of the answer, she didn't feel particularly keen on eating something made of wood. She looked around at the other stalls, and while the contents seemed to at least be analogous to food on Earth, it was tough to figure out what exactly anything is. "Uhh, I don't really recognize most of the stuff here, honestly. Do you guys have sanma?"

[Empiricist]

Noriko
"Yes... but only because it fills your stomach with sawdust. Though it's nutritionally fortified if that's what you're worried about."
No, you're kinda more just not interested in eating sawdust.
"Sanma... sanma... that'd be... a kind of grilled fish right? Let me search it up..."
She kinda just spaces out for a bit as if deep in thought before getting back to you.
"Ah yes, there's a place that sells it, right this way!"

The stall she leads you to specializes in seafood and pyromancy, with its signature dishes cooked packed in clay. Except instead of clay it's a low temperature magma-like substance made from conjured molten rock and seasoning.

Still they do have sanma. Sort of anyways - you'll have to make it yourself: it's like one of those noodle places where you choose your own ingredients, except instead of cooking it in a kitchen, they just give you a cross between a Korean stone pot and a grill that cooks your ingredients in the bowl itself before purging the excess heat in a blast of steam.

Shef and Yuki
Six numbers saved to her phone, none with any names. Two of them are Sendo numbers. The other four do not correspond the any location on Earth - they have letters in their area code. Local, you presume. You see a message history to a seventh number, again Sendo, this one seems to be Kouta judging by the texts. Another message history is directed at the guild, consisting solely of the selfie in question. Photo, you got no location data. Backdrop is the interior of a nightclub. Well, "nightclub". It's day in there, with an artificial environment that resembles a tropical beach with snow for sand and what appears to be pieces of cathedral jutting out from the waters. A few internet searches later and you get a name and address, it's not too far from here by train, though it's also closed during the day.

Lastly browser history doesn't have too much, mostly just sites following the only two searches in it, namely Mental asylums in Sendo and Where do babies come from?

[Chevaleresse]

 Noriko gives the princess a look for a moment. "Do you have the internet hooked up to your thoughts or something?" A terrifying thought, really. Sure, being able to search anything by thinking about it would be nice, but, you know. It's a direct line to your brain from the internet.

She looks over the shop for a moment. She'd been hoping to just grab something and go, but realistically she had no reason to hurry. Not that this stopped her from wanting to get back to her little brother as fast as possible to quiet the voice in the back of her head screaming that something could befall him at any moment. . . but for now she could push that back. Eventually, she picks out a relatively plain dish, then does her best to follow the instructions and avoid setting herself on fire or something.

[Empiricist]

Noriko
"Not directly."
So yes then, well, that explains how she suddenly started speaking Japanese at least.

The instructions are fairly easy to follow, you just hit the red button to activate the bowl's grill and place ingredients on it with the utensils provided, when they're cooked to your satisfaction, you click the blue button and cool it down to a less painful temperature. At that point the grill itself dissipates letting the food fall a bit deeper down while the bottom section of the bowl detaches letting you throw away whatever fat has drained down there. Pretty simple all things considered. Patricija for her part decides to pick the same ingredients as you and soon enough starts grilling them on her own bowl.

[Twinwolf]

"I really don't, sorry. Last I remember is some drinks. I have a vague feeling like I fought something? And I probably bought new clothes which is kinda way more financially irresponsible than I'm used to and worrying now that I think about it but besides that, really nothing."